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The ''Jyllands-Posten'' Muhammad cartoons controversy (or Muhammad cartoons crisis, da, Muhammedkrisen) began after the Danish newspaper ''
Jyllands-Posten
''Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten'' (; English: ''The Morning Newspaper "The Jutland Post"''), commonly shortened to ''Jyllands-Posten'' or ''JP'', is a Danish daily broadsheet newspaper. It is based in Aarhus C, Jutland, and with a weekday circula ...
'' published 12 editorial cartoons on 30 September 2005, most of which depicted
Muhammad
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...
, a principal figure of the religion of
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
. The newspaper announced that this was an attempt to contribute to the debate about
criticism of Islam
Criticism of Islam is broadly defined as criticism of the Islamic religion in its beliefs, principles, and/or any other ideas attributed to Islam.
Criticism of Islam has existed since Islam's formative stages.
Early written disapprovals came f ...
and
self-censorship
Self-censorship is the act of censoring or classifying one's own discourse. This is done out of fear of, or deference to, the sensibilities or preferences (actual or perceived) of others and without overt pressure from any specific party or insti ...
.
Muslim groups in Denmark complained, and the issue eventually led to protests around the world, including violence and riots in some
Muslim countries
The terms Muslim world and Islamic world commonly refer to the Islamic community, which is also known as the Ummah. This consists of all those who adhere to the religious beliefs and laws of Islam or to societies in which Islam is practiced. I ...
.
Islam has a strong tradition of
aniconism, and it is considered
highly blasphemous in most Islamic traditions to visually depict Muhammad. This, compounded with a sense that the cartoons insulted Muhammad and Islam, offended many Muslims. Danish Muslim organisations that objected to the depictions responded by petitioning the embassies of Islamic countries and the Danish government to take action in response, and filed a judicial complaint against the newspaper, which was dismissed in January 2006.
After the Danish government refused to meet with diplomatic representatives of the Muslim countries and—per legal principle and in accordance with the Danish legal system—would not intervene in the case, a number of Danish
imam
Imam (; ar, إمام '; plural: ') is an Islamic leadership position. For Sunni Muslims, Imam is most commonly used as the title of a worship leader of a mosque. In this context, imams may lead Islamic worship services, lead prayers, ser ...
s headed by Ahmed Akkari visited the Middle East in late 2005 to gather support around the issue. They presented a
dossier
A dossier is a collection of papers or other sources, containing detailed information about a particular person or subject.
Dossier can also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* ''Dossier 51'', a 1978 film based on a book of the same name ...
containing the twelve cartoons from the ''Jyllands-Posten'', and other depictions of Muhammad alongside them, some real and some fake, including one where they claimed he was portrayed as a pig, seen as
forbidden and unclean in Islam. This last image was proven to be an Associated Press photograph of a contestant in a pig-squealing contest and, when presented with this and other falsehoods, the delegation's press spokesman admitted the goal of the tour had been to stir up hostility.
The issue received prominent media attention in some Muslim-majority countries, leading to protests across the world in late January and early February 2006. Some escalated into violence, resulting in more than 250 reported deaths, attacks on Danish and other European diplomatic missions, attacks on churches and Christians, and a boycott of Denmark. Some groups responded to the intense pro-aniconist protests by endorsing the Danish policies, launching "Buy Danish" campaigns and other displays of support for freedom of expression. The cartoons were reprinted in newspapers around the world, both in a sense of journalistic solidarity and as an illustration in what became a major news story.
Danish Prime Minister
Anders Fogh Rasmussen
Anders Fogh Rasmussen (; born 26 January 1953) is a Danish politician who was the 24th Prime Minister of Denmark from November 2001 to April 2009 and the 12th Secretary General of NATO from August 2009 to October 2014. He became CEO of politi ...
described the controversy as Denmark's worst international relations incident since the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. The incident came at a time of heightened political and social tensions between
Muslim majority countries
The terms Muslim world and Islamic world commonly refer to the Islamic community, which is also known as the Ummah. This consists of all those who adhere to the religious beliefs and laws of Islam or to societies in which Islam is practiced. In ...
and
Western countries
The Western world, also known as the West, primarily refers to the various nations and states in the regions of Europe, North America, and Oceania. , following several, high-profile
radical Islamic terrorist attacks in the Westincluding the
September 11 attacks
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercia ...
and Western military interventions in Muslim countries, such as
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
and
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
. The relationship between Muslims in Denmark and broader society was similarly at a low point, and the conflict came to symbolize the discrepancies and idiosyncrasies between the Islamic community and the rest of society. In the years since, jihadist terrorist plots claiming to be in retaliation for the cartoons have been plannedand some executedagainst targets affiliated with ''Jyllands-Posten'' and its employees, Denmark, or newspapers that published the cartoons and other caricatures of
Islamic prophets
Prophets in Islam ( ar, الأنبياء في الإسلام, translit=al-ʾAnbiyāʾ fī al-ʾIslām) are individuals in Islam who are believed to spread God's message on Earth and to serve as models of ideal human behaviour. Some prophets a ...
, most notably the
''Charlie Hebdo'' shooting in 2015.
Supporters said that the publication of the cartoons was a legitimate exercise in
free speech
Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The rights, right to freedom of expression has been ...
: regardless of the content of the expression, it was important to openly discuss Islam without fear of terror, also stating that the cartoons made important points about critical issues. The Danish tradition of relatively high tolerance for freedom of speech became the focus of some attention. The controversy ignited a debate about the limits of freedom of expression in all societies, religious tolerance and the relationship of Muslim minorities with their broader societies in the West, and relations between the
Islamic world
The terms Muslim world and Islamic world commonly refer to the Islamic community, which is also known as the Ummah. This consists of all those who adhere to the religious beliefs and laws of Islam or to societies in which Islam is practiced. In ...
in general and
the West
West is a cardinal direction or compass point.
West or The West may also refer to:
Geography and locations
Global context
* The Western world
* Western culture and Western civilization in general
* The Western Bloc, countries allied with NATO ...
.
Notably, a few days after the original publishing, ''Jyllands-Posten'' published several depictions of Muhammad, all legitimately bought in Muslim countries. This, however, drew little attention.
Timeline
Debate about self-censorship
On 16 September 2005, Danish news service
Ritzau
Ritzaus Bureau A/S, or Ritzau for short, sometimes stylized as /ritzau/, is a Danish news agency founded by Erik Ritzau in 1866. It collaborates with three other Scandinavian news agencies to provide Nordic News, an English-language Scandinavia ...
published an article discussing the difficulty encountered by the writer
Kåre Bluitgen
Kåre Bluitgen (10 May 1959) is a Danish writer and journalist whose works include a biography of Muhammad. In the 1970s Bluitgen was politically active on the Danish left, namely within the Left Socialists.
Education and career
Kåre Bluitgen re ...
, who was initially unable to find an illustrator prepared to work on his children's book ''The Qur'an and the life of the Prophet Muhammad'' ().
Three artists declined Bluitgen's proposal out of fear of reprisals.
One artist agreed to assist anonymously; he said that he was afraid for his and his family's safety.
According to Bluitgen, one artist declined due to the murder in Amsterdam of the film director
Theo van Gogh the year before; another cited the attack in October 2004 on a lecturer at the at the
University of Copenhagen
The University of Copenhagen ( da, Københavns Universitet, KU) is a prestigious public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in ...
; he was assaulted by five assailants who opposed his reading of the Qur'an to non-Muslims during a lecture.
The story gained some traction, and the major Danish newspapers reported the story the following day.
The supposed refusals from these first three artists to participate was seen as evidence of self-censorship out of fear of violence from
Islamists, which led to much debate in Denmark.
The Danish newspaper ''
Politiken
''Politiken'' is a leading Danish daily broadsheet newspaper, published by JP/Politikens Hus in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was founded in 1884 and played a role in the formation of the Danish Social Liberal Party. Since 1970 it has been independe ...
'' stated on 12 February 2006, that they had asked Bluitgen to put them in touch with the artists, so the claim that none of them dared to work with him could be proved. The author refused, and nobody has ever been able to confirm whether the incident was accurately described.
Publication
At an editorial meeting of ''
Jyllands-Posten
''Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten'' (; English: ''The Morning Newspaper "The Jutland Post"''), commonly shortened to ''Jyllands-Posten'' or ''JP'', is a Danish daily broadsheet newspaper. It is based in Aarhus C, Jutland, and with a weekday circula ...
'' ('The
Jutland
Jutland ( da, Jylland ; german: Jütland ; ang, Ēota land ), known anciently as the Cimbric or Cimbrian Peninsula ( la, Cimbricus Chersonesus; da, den Kimbriske Halvø, links=no or ; german: Kimbrische Halbinsel, links=no), is a peninsula of ...
Post', Denmark's largest daily newspaper) on 19 September, reporter Stig Olesen put forward the idea of asking the members of the newspaper illustrators union if they would be willing to draw Muhammad.
This would be an experiment to see the degree to which professional illustrators felt threatened.
Flemming Rose
Flemming Rose (born 11 March 1958) is a Danish journalist, author and Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute. He previously served as foreign affairs editor at the Danish newspaper ''Jyllands-Posten''. As culture editor of the same newspaper, he was ...
, culture editor, was interested in the idea and wrote to the 42 members of the union asking them to draw their interpretations of Muhammad.
15 illustrators responded to the letter; three declined to participate, one did not know how to contribute to what he called a vague project, one thought the project was stupid and badly paid, and one said he was afraid.
12 drawings had been submittedthree from newspaper employees and two which did not directly show Muhammad.
The editors thought that some of the illustrators who had not responded were employed by other newspapers and were thus contractually prohibited from working for ''Jyllands-Posten.'' In the end, editor-in-chief
Carsten Juste decided that given its inconclusive results, the story was better suited as an opinion piece rather than a news story, and it was decided to publish it in the culture section, under the direction of editor Flemming Rose.
Peter Hervik, a professor of Migration Studies, has since written that the results of this experiment disproved the idea that self-censorship was a serious problem in Denmark because the overwhelming majority of cartoonists had either responded positively or refused for contractual or philosophical reasons.
Carsten Juste has said that the survey "lacked validity and the story fell short of sound journalistic basis."
Hervik said that this, along with the fact that the most controversial cartoons were drawn by the newspaper's staff cartoonists, demonstrates that the newspaper's "desire to provoke and insult Danish Muslims exceeded the wish to test the self-censorship of Danish cartoonists."
Rose wrote the editorial which accompanied the cartoons in which he argued there had been several recent cases of self-censorship, weighing freedom of speech against the fear of confronting issues about Islam, so he thought it was legitimate news story. Among the incidents he cited were: the translators of a book critical of Islam did not want their names published; the
Tate gallery
Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...
in London withdrew an installation by the avant-garde artist
John Latham depicting the Quran, Bible and Talmud torn to pieces, and comedian
Frank Hvam
Frank Hvam Nielsen, known professionally as Frank Hvam (born 12 September 1970) is a Danish stand-up-comedian. Hvam was born in Viborg and grew up on a farm in Ørum Sønderlyng. His legal name is Nielsen, but he uses only his middle name pro ...
said in an interview with ''Jyllands-Posten'' that he would hypothetically dare to urinate on the Bible on television, but not on the Quran. Rose also mentioned the case of a Danish imam who had met with Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen and "called on the prime minister to interfere with the press in order to get more positive coverage of Islam."
On 30 September 2005, ''Jyllands-Posten'' published an article entitled "" ('The face of Muhammad') incorporating the cartoons.
The article consisted of the 12 cartoons and an explanatory text, in which Rose wrote:
Later, Rose explained his intent further in ''
The Washington Post
''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'': "The cartoonists treated Islam the same way they treat Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism and other religions. And by treating Muslims in Denmark as equals they made a point: We are integrating you into the Danish tradition of satire because you are part of our society, not strangers. The cartoons are including, rather than excluding, Muslims."
The publication of the cartoons was also accompanied by an editorial titled "" ('The Threat from the Darkness') condemning Islamic spiritual leaders "who feel entitled to interpret the prophet's word, and cannot abide the insult that comes from being the object of intelligent satire."
In October 2005, ''Politiken'', another leading Danish newspaper, published its own poll of thirty-one of the forty-three members of the Danish cartoonist association. Twenty-three said they would be willing to draw Muhammad. One had doubts, one would not be willing because of fear of possible reprisals, and six artists would not be willing because they respected the Muslim ban on depicting Muhammad.
Description of the cartoons
The 12 cartoons were drawn by 12 professional cartoonists in Denmark. Four of the cartoons have Danish texts, one deliberately evades the issue and depicts a school child in Denmark named Muhammad rather than the
Islamic prophet
Prophets in Islam ( ar, الأنبياء في الإسلام, translit=al-ʾAnbiyāʾ fī al-ʾIslām) are individuals in Islam who are believed to spread God in Islam, God's message on Earth and to serve as models of ideal human behaviour. So ...
, one is based on a Danish cultural expression, and one includes a Danish politician.
Response
The immediate responses to the publication varied, included some newspaper sellers refusing to distribute that day's paper.
In the following days, the cartoons received significant attention in other Danish press outlets. According to
Jytte Klausen
Jytte Klausen (born 21 February 1954) is a Danish-born scholar of politics who teaches at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts.
Klausen is a graduate of the University of Aarhus who earned her doctorate at the New School for Social Resea ...
, "most people groaned that the newspaper was at it again, bashing Muslims. The instinct was to split the blame."
[Klausen, 2009. p. 17.] ''
Berlingske-Tidende'' criticised the 'gag', but also said that Islam should be openly criticised. ''Politiken'' attacked Rose's account of growing self-censorship; it also surveyed Danish cartoonists and said that self-censorship was not generally perceived as a problem.
On 4 October, a local teenager telephoned the newspaper offices threatening to kill the cartoonists, but he was arrested after his mother turned him in.
Shortly after the publication, a group of Islamic leaders formed a protest group.
Raed Hlayhel called a meeting to discuss their strategy, which took place in Copenhagen a few days after the cartoons appeared.
The Islamic Faith Community and four mosques from around the country were represented. The meeting established 19 "action points" to try to influence public opinion about the cartoons.
Ahmed Akkari
Ahmed Akkari (born 1978 in Lebanon) ( ar, أحمد عكاري) is a Danish political activist who became known for his involvement
in the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy. Widely called an "Imam" in the media, he himself denied being ...
from a mosque in
Aarhus
Aarhus (, , ; officially spelled Århus from 1948 until 1 January 2011) is the second-largest city in Denmark and the seat of Aarhus Municipality. It is located on the eastern shore of Jutland in the Kattegat sea and approximately northwest ...
was designated the group's spokesman. The group planned a variety of political activities, including launching a legal complaint against the newspaper, writing letters to media outlets inside and outside Denmark, contacting politicians and diplomatic representatives, organising a protest in Copenhagen, and mobilising Danish Muslims through text messages and mosques.
A one-day strike and sleep-in were planned, but never took place.
A peaceful protest, which attracted about 3,500 demonstrators, was held in Copenhagen on 14 October 2005.
Having received petitions from Danish imams, eleven ambassadors from Muslim-majority countriesTurkey, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan, Egypt, Indonesia, Algeria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Libya, Moroccoand the Head of the Palestinian General Delegation
asked for a meeting with Danish Prime Minister
Anders Fogh Rasmussen
Anders Fogh Rasmussen (; born 26 January 1953) is a Danish politician who was the 24th Prime Minister of Denmark from November 2001 to April 2009 and the 12th Secretary General of NATO from August 2009 to October 2014. He became CEO of politi ...
on 12 October 2005. They wanted to discuss what they perceived as an "on-going smearing campaign in Danish public circles and media against Islam and Muslims."
In a letter, the ambassadors mentioned the issue of the Muhammad cartoons, a recent indictment against
Radio Holger, and statements by MP
Louise Frevert and the Minister of Culture
Brian Mikkelsen
Brian Arthur Mikkelsen (born 31 January 1966) is CEO of The Danish Chamber of Commerce. He is former Minister and former member of the Conservative People's Party, and was in The Danish Parliament (Folketinget) from 21 September 1994 to 21 June ...
.
It concluded:
The government answered with a letter without addressing the request for a meeting:
The refusal to meet the ambassadors was later prominently criticised by the Danish political opposition, twenty-two Danish ex-ambassadors and the Prime Minister's fellow party member, former Minister of Foreign Affairs
Uffe Ellemann-Jensen
Uffe Ellemann-Jensen (, informal: ; 1 November 1941 – 18 June 2022) was a Danish politician who served as Minister for Foreign Affairs of Denmark in the Conservative-led Poul Schlüter Administration from 1982 to 1993. He was leader of the Da ...
. Hervik wrote:
While it is certainly true that the prime minister did not have a legal right to intervene in the editorial process, he could have publicly (as an enactment of free speech) dissociated himself from the publication, from the content of the cartoons, from Rose's explanatory text, from ''Jyllands-Posten''s editorial of the same day, and from the general association of Islam with terrorism. Rasmussen did none of those. Instead, he used his interview n 30 October 2005to endorse ''Jyllands-Posten's'' position and the act of publishing the cartoons.
The
Organisation of Islamic Cooperation
An organization or organisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is an entity—such as a company, an institution, or an association—comprising one or more people and having a particular purpose.
The word is derived from ...
(OIC) and
Arab League
The Arab League ( ar, الجامعة العربية, ' ), formally the League of Arab States ( ar, جامعة الدول العربية, '), is a regional organization in the Arab world, which is located in Northern Africa, Western Africa, E ...
also wrote a joint letter to the Prime Minister expressing alarm about the cartoons and other recent incidents and insults committed by Danish politicians.
[Klausen, 2009. p. 186.] The Muslim countries continued to work diplomatically to try to have the issueand the other issues mentioned in their initial letteraddressed by the Danish government.
[Klausen, 2009. "The Diplomatic Protest against the Cartoons." pp. 63–83.] Turkey and Egypt were particularly active.
Turkish Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician serving as the List of presidents of Turkey, 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as prime minister of Turkey from 2003 to 2014 and as Lis ...
visited Copenhagen in November in an encounter which the Turkish press described as a crisis.
[Klausen, 2009. p. 67.] Erdogan clashed with Rasmussen over the cartoons as well as
Roj TV Roj may refer to:
* Rój, a district in Poland
* Roj TV, a Kurdish satellite television station
*Roj Blake, the eponymous rebel leader from the BBC television series ''Blake's 7''
* Andrzej Gąsienica Roj (1930-1989), Polish skier who competed in ...
a television station affiliated with the
Kurdistan Workers' Party
The Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK is a Kurdish militant political organization and armed guerrilla movement, which historically operated throughout Kurdistan, but is now primarily based in the mountainous Kurdish-majority regions of south ...
being allowed to broadcast from Denmark. After trying to engage the Danish government diplomatically, Egyptian foreign minister
Ahmed Aboul Gheit
Ahmed Aboul Gheit ( ar, أحمد أبو الغيط , also: Abu al-Ghayt, Abu El Gheyt, etc.) (born 12 June 1942) is an Egyptian politician and diplomat who has been Secretary-General of the Arab League since July 2016. He was reappointed for a s ...
and the secretary-generals of the OIC and the Arab League sent letters to the
OSCE
The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is the world's largest regional security-oriented intergovernmental organization with observer status at the United Nations. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, prom ...
,
OECD
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; french: Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques, ''OCDE'') is an intergovernmental organisation with 38 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate e ...
, and
EU foreign policy coordinator complaining about Danish inaction.
Judicial investigation of ''Jyllands-Posten'' (October 2005 – January 2006)
On 27 October 2005, representatives of the Muslim organisations which had complained about the cartoons in early October filed a complaint with the Danish police claiming that ''Jyllands-Posten'' had committed an offence under sections 140 and 266b of the
Danish Criminal Code, precipitating an investigation by the public prosecutor:
* Section 140
(aka the blasphemy law), prohibits disturbing public order by publicly ridiculing or insulting the dogmas of worship of any lawfully existing religious community in Denmark. Only one case, a 1938 case involving an anti-Semitic group, has ever resulted in a sentence. The most recent case was in 1971 when a programme director of
Danmarks Radio
DR (), officially the Danish Broadcasting Corporation in English, is a Danish public-service radio and television broadcasting company. Founded in 1925 as a public-service organization, it is Denmark's oldest and largest electronic media enterp ...
was accused in a case involving a song about the Christian god, but was found not guilty.
* Section 266b
criminalises insult, threat or degradation of
natural person
In jurisprudence, a natural person (also physical person in some Commonwealth countries, or natural entity) is a person (in legal meaning, i.e., one who has its own legal personality) that is an individual human being, distinguished from the bro ...
s, by publicly and with malice attacking their race, colour of skin, national or ethnic roots, faith or sexual orientation.
On 6 January 2006, the Regional Public Prosecutor in
Viborg discontinued the investigation as he found no basis for concluding that the cartoons constituted a criminal offence because the publication concerned a subject of public interest and Danish
case law
Case law, also used interchangeably with common law, is law that is based on precedents, that is the judicial decisions from previous cases, rather than law based on constitutions, statutes, or regulations. Case law uses the detailed facts of a l ...
extends editorial freedom to journalists regarding subjects of public interest. He stated that in assessing what constitutes an offence, the right to freedom of speech must be taken into consideration, and said that freedom of speech must be exercised with the necessary respect for other human rights, including the right to protection against discrimination, insult and degradation.
In a new hearing resulting from a complaint about the original decision, the Director of Public Prosecutors in Denmark agreed with the previous ruling.
Danish Imams tour the Middle East
In December, after communications with the Danish government and the newspaper, the "Committee for Prophet Honouring" decided to gain support and leverage outside of Denmark by meeting directly with religious and political leaders in the Middle East. They created a 43-page dossier, commonly known as the
''Akkari-Laban'' dossier ( ar, ملف عكّاري لبن; after two leading imams), containing the cartoons and supporting materials for their meetings.
The dossier, finalised for the group's trip to Lebanon in mid-December, contained the following:
* An introduction describing the situation of Muslims in Denmark (from the point of view represented by the imams), the country itself, background on the cartoons, and the group's action plan;
* Clippings of the articles and editorials from 30 September 2005 that accompanied the cartoons and a copy of the page with cartoons translated into Arabic;
* An 11-point declaration by Raed Hlayhel against alleged Western double standards about free speech; he wrote that Islam and Muhammed are ridiculed and insulted under the guise of free speech while parallel insults would be unacceptable;
* 11 of the 12 cartoons from the paper itself blown up to A4 size and translated. The cartoon with Muhammad and the sword was not shown here, only in the overview page;
* Copies of letters and the group's press releases;
* Arabic translation of the ''Jyllands-Posten'' editorial of 12 October discussing the early controversy and refusing to apologise;
* 10 satirical cartoons from another Danish newspaper, ''
Weekendavisen
''Weekendavisen'' (meaning ''The Weekend Newspaper'' in English) is a Danish weekly broadsheet newspaper published on Fridays in Denmark. Its circulation (as of 2007) is approximately 60,000 copies, about ten per cent of which cover subscription ...
'', published in November 2005 in response to the ''Jyllands-Posten'' controversy, which Kasem Ahmad, spokesman for ''
Islamisk Trossamfund'', called "even more offensive" than the original 12 cartoons despite being intended as satire. He said that they were part of a broader campaign to denigrate Muslims and were gratuitously provocative;
* Three additional pictures that the dossier's authors alleged were sent to Muslims in Denmark, said to be indicative of the "hate they feel subjected to in Denmark"'
* Some clippings from Egyptian newspapers discussing the group's first visit to Egypt.
The dossier also contained "falsehood about alleged maltreatment of Muslims in Denmark" and the "tendentious lie that ''Jyllands-Posten'' was a government-run newspaper".
The imams said that the three additional images were sent anonymously by mail to Muslims who were participating in an online debate on ''Jyllands-Posten''s website, and were apparently included to illustrate the perceived atmosphere of Islamophobia in which they lived. On 1 February,
BBC World
BBC World News is an international English-language pay television network, operated under the ''BBC Global News Limited'' division of the BBC, which is a public corporation of the UK government's Department for Digital, Culture, Media and S ...
incorrectly reported that one of the images had been published in ''Jyllands-Posten''. This image was later found to be a wire-service photograph of a contestant at
a French pig-squealing contest in the Trie-sur-Baise's annual festival.
One of the other two additional images (a photograph) portrayed a Muslim being mounted by a dog while praying, and the other (a cartoon) portrayed Muhammad as a demonic paedophile.
Expertsincluding Helle Lykke Nielsenwho have examined the dossier said that it was broadly accurate from a technical point of view but contained a few falsehoods and could easily have misled people not familiar with Danish society, an assessment which the imams have since agreed to.
Some mistakes were that Islam is not officially recognised as a religion in Denmark (it is); that the cartoons are the result of a contest; and that
Anders Fogh Rasmussen
Anders Fogh Rasmussen (; born 26 January 1953) is a Danish politician who was the 24th Prime Minister of Denmark from November 2001 to April 2009 and the 12th Secretary General of NATO from August 2009 to October 2014. He became CEO of politi ...
in his role as Prime Minister gave a medal to
Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Ayaan Hirsi Ali (; ; Somali: ''Ayaan Xirsi Cali'':'' Ayān Ḥirsī 'Alī;'' born Ayaan Hirsi Magan, ar, أيان حرسي علي / ALA-LC: ''Ayān Ḥirsī 'Alī'' 13 November 1969) is a Somali-born Dutch-American activist and former politicia ...
(he gave one in his capacity as party leader of the
Liberal Party
The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left.
__TOC__ Active liberal parties
This is a li ...
).
The imams also claimed to speak on behalf of 28 organisations, many of which later denied any connection to them.
Additions such as the "pig" photograph may have polarised the situation (the association of a person and a pig is considered very insulting in Islamic culture), as they were confused for the cartoons published in the newspaper.
Muslims who met with the group later said Akkari's delegation had given them the impression that Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen somehow controlled or owned ''Jyllands-Posten''.
Delegations of imams circulated the dossier on visits to Egypt, Syria and Lebanon in early December 2005, presenting their case to many influential religious and political leaders and asking for support.
The group was given high level access on these trips through their contacts in the Egyptian and Lebanese embassies. The dossier was distributed informally on 7–8 December 2005 at a summit of the
Organisation of the Islamic Conference
An organization or organisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is an entity—such as a company, an institution, or an association—comprising one or more people and having a particular purpose.
The word is derived fro ...
(OIC) in
Mecca
Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red ...
, with many heads of state in attendance. The OIC issued a condemnation of the cartoons: "
e express ourconcern at rising hatred against Islam and Muslims and condemned the recent incident of desecration of the image of the Holy Prophet Mohamed." The communique also attacked the practice of "using the freedom of expression as a pretext for defaming religions."
Eventually an official communiqué was issued requesting that the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...
adopt a binding resolution banning contempt of religious beliefs and providing for sanctions to be imposed on contravening countries or institutions.
The attention of the OIC is said to have led to media coverage which brought the issue to public attention in many Muslim countries.
International protests
Protests against the cartoons were held around the world in late January and February 2006. Many of these turned violent, resulting in at least 200 deaths globally, according to the ''New York Times''.
Large demonstrations were held in many majority-Muslim countries, and almost every country with significant Muslim minorities, including:
* Nigeria,
* Canada,
* India,
* United States,
* United Kingdom (see:
),
* Australia,
* New Zealand,
* Kenya, and
* throughout
continental Europe
Continental Europe or mainland Europe is the contiguous continent of Europe, excluding its surrounding islands. It can also be referred to ambiguously as the European continent, – which can conversely mean the whole of Europe – and, by ...
.
In many instances, demonstrations against the cartoons became intertwined with those about other local political grievances.
Muslims in the north of Nigeria used protests to attack local Christians as part of an ongoing battle for influence, radical Sunnis used protests against governments in the Middle East, and authoritarian governments used them to bolster their religious and nationalist credentials in internal disputes; these associated political motives explain the intensity of some of the demonstrations.
Several Western embassies were attacked; the Danish and Austrian embassies in Lebanon and the Norwegian and Danish representations in Syria were severely damaged. Christians and Christian churches were also targets of violent retribution in some places.
U.S. Secretary of State
The United States secretary of state is a member of the executive branch of the federal government of the United States and the head of the U.S. Department of State. The office holder is one of the highest ranking members of the president's Ca ...
Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice ( ; born November 14, 1954) is an American diplomat and political scientist who is the current director of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. A member of the Republican Party, she previously served as the 66th Uni ...
accused Iran and Syria of organising many of the protests in Iran, Syria, and Lebanon. However,
Hezbollah
Hezbollah (; ar, حزب الله ', , also transliterated Hizbullah or Hizballah, among others) is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and militant group, led by its Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah since 1992. Hezbollah's parami ...
, ally of Syria and Iran in Lebanon, has condemned the attack on the Danish Embassy.
Several death threats were made against the cartoonists and the newspaper, resulting in the cartoonists going into hiding. Danish Prime Minister Rasmussen called it Denmark's worst international relations incident since the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.
Peaceful counter-demonstrations in support of the cartoons, Denmark, and freedom of speech were also held. Three national ministers lost their jobs amid the controversy:
Roberto Calderoli
Roberto Calderoli (born 18 April 1956) is an Italian politician and a member of the Senate of the Republic. He was a Minister without portfolio for Legislative Simplification in the Berlusconi IV Cabinet. He previously served as Minister without ...
in Italy for his support of the cartoons,
Laila Freivalds
Laila Ligita Freivalds (born 22 June 1942) is a Swedish Social Democratic politician who served as Minister for Justice from 1988 to 1991 and again from 1994 to 2000, as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2003 to 2006 and as Deputy Prime Minist ...
in Sweden for her role in shutting down a website displaying the cartoons, and the Libyan
Interior Minister
An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...
after a riot in
Benghazi
Benghazi () , ; it, Bengasi; tr, Bingazi; ber, Bernîk, script=Latn; also: ''Bengasi'', ''Benghasi'', ''Banghāzī'', ''Binghāzī'', ''Bengazi''; grc, Βερενίκη (''Berenice'') and ''Hesperides''., group=note (''lit. Son of he Ghazi ...
in response to Calderoli's comments, which led to the deaths of at least 10 people.
In India,
Haji Yaqub Qureishi, a minister in the
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...
state government, announced a cash reward for anyone who beheaded "the Danish cartoonist" who caricatured Mohammad. Subsequently, a case was filed against him in the
Lucknow
Lucknow (, ) is the capital and the largest city of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh and it is also the second largest urban agglomeration in Uttar Pradesh. Lucknow is the administrative headquarters of the eponymous district and division ...
district court and eminent Muslim scholars in India were split between those supporting punishment for the cartoonists and those calling for the minister's sacking. As of 2011, legal action was ongoing.
Boycott
![Supportdenmark1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/98/Supportdenmark1.jpg)
A consumer boycott was organised in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and other Middle Eastern countries against Denmark. On 5 March 2006,
Ayman al-Zawahiri
Ayman Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri (June 19, 1951 – July 31, 2022) was an Egyptian-born terrorist and physician who served as the second emir of al-Qaeda from June 16, 2011, until his death.
Al-Zawahiri graduated from Cairo University with ...
of
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda (; , ) is an Islamic extremism, Islamic extremist organization composed of Salafist jihadists. Its members are mostly composed of Arab, Arabs, but also include other peoples. Al-Qaeda has mounted attacks on civilian and military ta ...
urged all Muslims to boycott not only Denmark, but also Norway, France, Germany and all others that have "insulted the Prophet Mohammed" by printing cartoons depicting him. Consumer goods companies were the most vulnerable to the boycott; among companies heavily affected were
Arla Foods
, industry = Dairy
, predecessor = ArlaMD Foods
, founded =
, founder =
, location_city = Viby
, location_country = Denmark
, area_served = Worldwide
, key_people = Peder Tub ...
,
Novo Nordisk
Novo Nordisk A/S is a Danish multinational pharmaceutical company headquartered in Bagsværd, Denmark, with production facilities in nine countries, and affiliates or offices in five countries. Novo Nordisk is controlled by majority shareholder ...
, and
Danisco
Danisco A/S is a Danish bio-based company with activities in food production, enzymes and other bioproducts as well as a wide variety of pharmaceutical grade excipients. It was formed in 1989 from the largest Danish industrial merger ever of t ...
. Arla, Denmark's biggest exporter to the Middle East, lost 10 million
kroner (, ) per day in the initial weeks of the boycott.
Scandinavia
Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion#Europe, subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, ...
n tourism to
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
fell by between 20 and 30% in the first two months of 2006.
On 9 September 2006, ''
BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...
'' reported that the Muslim boycott of Danish goods had reduced Denmark's total exports by 15.5% between February and June. This was attributed to an approximated 50% decline in exports to the Middle East. The BBC said, "The cost to Danish businesses was around 134 million euros ($170m), when compared with the same period last year, the statistics showed." However, ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' newspaper in the UK said, "While Danish milk products were dumped in the Middle East, fervent right-wing Americans started buying
Bang & Olufsen
Bang & Olufsen (B&O) is a Danish high-end consumer electronics company that designs and manufactures audio products, television sets, and telephones. It was founded in 1925 by Peter Bang and Svend Olufsen, who designed a radio to work with alt ...
stereos and
Lego
Lego ( , ; stylized as LEGO) is a line of plastic construction toys that are manufactured by The Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of variously colored interlocking ...
. In the first quarter of this year Denmark's exports to the US soared 17%." Overall the boycott did not have a significant effect on the Danish economy.
Response to protests and reprintings
In response to the initial protests from Muslim groups, ''Jyllands-Posten'' published an open letter to the citizens of Saudi Arabia on its website, in Danish and in Arabic, apologising for any offence the drawings may have caused but defending the right of the newspaper to publish them. A second open letter "to the honourable Fellow Citizens of the Muslim World", dated 8 February 2006, had a Danish version, an Arabic version, and an English version:
Six of the cartoons were first reprinted by the Egyptian newspaper ''
El Fagr'' on 17 October 2005, along with an article strongly denouncing them, but this did not provoke any condemnations or other reactions from religious or government authorities. Between October 2005 and early January 2006, examples of the cartoons were reprinted in major European newspapers from the Netherlands, Germany, Scandinavia, Romania, and Switzerland. After the beginning of major international protests, they were re-published around the globe, but primarily in continental Europe. The cartoons were not reprinted in any major newspapers in Canada,
the United Kingdom, or many in the United States where articles covered the story without including them.
Reasons for the decision not to publish the cartoons widely in the United Statesdespite that country's permissive free speech lawsincluded increased religious sensitivity, higher integration of Muslims into mainstream society, and a desire to be tactful considering the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Numerous
newspapers were closed and editors dismissed, censured, or arrested for their decision or intention to re-publish the cartoons. In some countries, including South Africa, publication of the cartoons was banned by government or court orders.
The OIC denounced calls for the death of the Danish cartoonists. The OIC's Secretary General
Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu said at the height of crisis that the violent protests were "un-Islamic" and appealed for calm. He also denounced calls for a boycott of Danish goods. Twelve high-profile writers, among them
Salman Rushdie
Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie (; born 19 June 1947) is an Indian-born British-American novelist. His work often combines magic realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern and Wes ...
, signed a letter called "Manifesto: Together Facing the New Totalitarianism" which was published in a number of newspapers. It said that the violence sparked by the publication of cartoons satirising Muhammad "shows the need to fight for secular values and freedom."
Later developments
Numerous violent plots related to the cartoons have been discovered in the years since the main protests in early 2006. These have primarily targeted editor Flemming Rose, cartoonist
Kurt Westergaard
Kurt Westergaard (born Kurt Vestergaard; 13 July 1935 – 14 July 2021) was a Danish cartoonist. In 2005 he drew a cartoon of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, wearing a bomb in his turban as a part of the ''Jyllands-Posten'' Muhammad cartoons, w ...
, the property or employees of ''Jyllands-Posten'' and other newspapers that printed the cartoons, and representatives of the Danish state. Westergaard was the subject of several attacks or planned attacks and lived under special police protection until his death in 2021. On 1 January 2010, police used firearms to stop a would-be assassin in Westergaard's home. In February 2011, the attacker, a 29-year-old Somali man, was sentenced to nine years in prison. In 2010, three men based in Norway were arrested on suspicion that they were planning a terror attack against ''Jyllands-Posten'' or Kurt Westergaard; two of the men were convicted. In the United States,
David Headley
David Coleman Headley (born Daood Sayed Gilani; June 30, 1960) is an American terrorist. He is currently serving a 35-year sentence in the United States after pleading guilty to 12 international terrorism charges.
It has been alleged that Headl ...
and
Tahawwur Hussain Rana
Captain Tahawwur Hussain Rana ( ur, ; born 12 January 1961) is a Pakistani former military doctor who served in the Pakistan Army. He moved to Canada after gaining citizenship and became an immigration service businessman.
In 2011, he was co ...
were convicted of planning terrorism against ''Jyllands-Posten'' and were sentenced in 2013.
Naser Khader
Naser Khader ( ar, ناصر خضر Levantine pronunciation: ; born 1 July 1963) is a Syrian-Danish politician who is a member of the Folketing as an independent politician. Until 2021 he was a member of the Conservative People's Party.
...
, a Muslim Danish MP, founded an organisation called
Democratic Muslims in Denmark
Democratic Muslims ( da, Demokratiske muslimer) is a political organization in Denmark founded by Naser Khader, Yildiz Akdogan and other Muslims in February 2006 after the escalation of the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy. Its goal ...
in response to the controversy. He was worried that what he believed to be Islamists were seen to speak for all Muslims in Denmark. He said that there is still a sharp division within the Danish Muslim community between Islamists and moderates, and that Denmark had become a target for Islamists. He said that some good came from the crisis because "the cartoon crisis made clear that Muslims are not united and that there is a real difference between the Islamists and people like myself. Danes were shown that talk of 'the Muslims' was too monolithic." He also said that the crisis served as a wake-up call about radical Islam to European countries.
In 2009, when Brandeis University professor
Jytte Klausen
Jytte Klausen (born 21 February 1954) is a Danish-born scholar of politics who teaches at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts.
Klausen is a graduate of the University of Aarhus who earned her doctorate at the New School for Social Resea ...
wanted to publish a book about the controversy titled ''
The Cartoons that Shook the World
''The Cartoons that Shook the World'' is a 2009 book by Brandeis University professor Jytte Klausen about the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy, ''Jyllands-Posten'' Muhammad cartoons controversy. Klausen contends that the controversy wa ...
'', Yale University Press refused to publish the cartoons and other representations of Muhammad out of fear for the safety of its staff. In response, another company published ''
Muhammad: The "Banned" Images'' in what it called "a 'picture book'or errata to the bowdlerized version of Klausen's book." Five years to the day after the cartoons were first published in ''Jyllands-Posten,'' they were republished in Denmark in Rose's book ''Tyranny of Silence.'' When the book's international edition was published in the United States in 2014 it did not include the cartoons.
Around 2007 the international
counter-jihad movement began to appear as a reaction partly influenced by the ''Jyllands-Posten'' cartoon crisis.
Regrets
In 2013,
The Islamic Society in Denmark The Islamic Society in Denmark ( da, Islamisk Trossamfund) is a Muslim religious organisation in Denmark. It was founded by Ahmad Abu Laban. The organisation played a significant role in bringing international Muslim attention to the Jyllands-Poste ...
stated that they regretted their visit to Lebanon and Egypt in 2006 to show the caricatures because the consequences had been much more serious than they expected. In August 2013,
Ahmed Akkari
Ahmed Akkari (born 1978 in Lebanon) ( ar, أحمد عكاري) is a Danish political activist who became known for his involvement
in the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy. Widely called an "Imam" in the media, he himself denied being ...
expressed his regret for his role in the Imams' tour of the Middle East, stating "I want to be clear today about the trip: It was totally wrong. At that time, I was so fascinated with this logical force in the Islamic mindset that I could not see the greater picture. I was convinced it was a fight for my faith, Islam." Still a practising Muslim, he said that printing the cartoons was ok and he personally apologised to the cartoonist Westergaard. Westergaard responded by saying "I met a man who has converted from being an Islamist to become a humanist who understands the values of our society. To me, he is really sincere, convincing and strong in his views." A spokesman for the Islamic Society of Denmark said "It is still not OK to publish drawings of Muhammad. We have not changed our position."
''Charlie Hebdo'' controversies and attacks
The French satirical weekly newspaper ''
Charlie Hebdo
''Charlie Hebdo'' (; meaning ''Charlie Weekly'') is a French satirical weekly magazine, featuring cartoons, reports, polemics, and jokes. Stridently non-conformist in tone, the publication has been described as Anti-racism, anti-racist, sceptica ...
'' was taken to court for publishing the cartoons; it was acquitted of charges that it incited hatred.
The incident marked the beginning of a number of violent incidents related to the cartoons of Muhammad at the newspaper over the following decade.
On 2 November 2011, ''Charlie Hebdo''
was firebombed right before its 3 November issue was due; the issue was called ''
Charia Hebdo'' and satirically featured
Muhammad
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 Common Era, CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Muhammad in Islam, Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet Divine inspiration, di ...
as guest-editor. The editor,
Stéphane Charbonnier
Stéphane Jean-Abel Michel Charbonnier (; 21 August 1967 – 7 January 2015), better known as Charb (), was a French satirical caricaturist and journalist. He was assassinated during the ''Charlie Hebdo'' shooting on 7 January 2015.
He wo ...
, known as Charb, and two co-workers at ''Charlie Hebdo'' subsequently received police protection. Charb was placed on a hit list by
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula ( ar-at, تنظيم القاعدة في جزيرة العرب, Tanẓīm al-Qā‘idah fī Jazīrat al-‘Arab, lit=Organization of the Base in the Arabian Peninsula or , ''Tanẓīm Qā‘idat al-Jihād fī Jaz ...
along with Kurt Westergaard,
Lars Vilks
Lars Endel Roger Vilks (20 June 1946 – 3 October 2021) was a Swedish visual artist and activist who was known for the controversy surrounding his drawings of Muhammad. He also created the sculptures ''Nimis'' and ''Arx'', made of driftwood an ...
,
Carsten Juste and
Flemming Rose
Flemming Rose (born 11 March 1958) is a Danish journalist, author and Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute. He previously served as foreign affairs editor at the Danish newspaper ''Jyllands-Posten''. As culture editor of the same newspaper, he was ...
after editing an edition of ''
Charlie Hebdo
''Charlie Hebdo'' (; meaning ''Charlie Weekly'') is a French satirical weekly magazine, featuring cartoons, reports, polemics, and jokes. Stridently non-conformist in tone, the publication has been described as Anti-racism, anti-racist, sceptica ...
'' that satirised Muhammad.
On 7 January 2015, two masked gunmen opened fire on
Charlie Hebdo
''Charlie Hebdo'' (; meaning ''Charlie Weekly'') is a French satirical weekly magazine, featuring cartoons, reports, polemics, and jokes. Stridently non-conformist in tone, the publication has been described as Anti-racism, anti-racist, sceptica ...
s staff and police officers as vengeance for its continued caricatures of Muhammad,
killing 12 people, including Charb, and wounding 11 others.
[Kim Willsher et al (7 January 2015]
Paris terror attack: huge manhunt under way after gunmen kill 12
''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' ''Jyllands-Posten'' did not re-print the ''Charlie Hebdo'' cartoons in the wake of the attack, with the new editor-in-chief citing security concerns.
In February 2015, in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo shootings in Paris, a gunman opened fire on attendants and police officers at a meeting discussing freedom of speech with the Swedish cartoonist
Lars Vilks
Lars Endel Roger Vilks (20 June 1946 – 3 October 2021) was a Swedish visual artist and activist who was known for the controversy surrounding his drawings of Muhammad. He also created the sculptures ''Nimis'' and ''Arx'', made of driftwood an ...
among the panelists, and later attacked a synagogue killing two people in Copenhagen in the
2015 Copenhagen shootings.
Background, opinions and issues
Danish journalistic tradition
Freedom of speech was guaranteed in law by the Danish Constitution of 1849, as it is today by The
Constitutional Act of Denmark of 5 June 1953. Danish freedom of expression is quite far-reachingeven by Western European standardsalthough it is subject to some legal restrictions dealing with libel, hate speech, blasphemy and defamation.
The country's comparatively lenient attitude toward freedom of expression has provoked official protests from several foreign governments, for example Germany, Turkey and Russia for allowing controversial organisations to use Denmark as a base for their operations.
Reporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders (RWB; french: Reporters sans frontières; RSF) is an international non-profit and non-governmental organization with the stated aim of safeguarding the right to freedom of information. It describes its advocacy as found ...
ranked Denmark at the top of its Worldwide Press Freedom Index for 2005.
Danish newspapers are privately owned and independent from the government.
At the time, section 140 of the
Danish Penal Code The Danish Penal Code, also known as the Danish Criminal Code ( da, Straffeloven),Retsinformation.dStraffeloven./ref> is the codification of and the foundation of criminal law in Denmark. The updated official full text covers 29 chapters and is al ...
criminalized mocking or insulting legal religions and faiths. No-one had at that time been charged under section 140 since 1971 and no-one had been convicted since 1938,
even though there have been several convictions since then - notably Danish politicians
Mogens Camre
Mogens Niels Juel Camre (29 March 1936 – 5 December 2016) was a Danish politician and Member of the European Parliament with the Danish People's Party (Danish: Dansk Folkeparti), a Vice-Chairman of the Union for a Europe of Nations and sat on t ...
and
Rasmus Paludan, but also , spokesman for the Islamic organization of
Hizb ut-Tahrir
Hizb ut-Tahrir (Arabicحزب التحرير (Translation: Party of Liberation) is an international, political organization which describes its ideology as Islam, and its aim the re-establishment of the Islamic Khilafah (Caliphate) to resume Isl ...
. A
complaint was filed against ''Jyllands-Posten'' under this section of the law, but the Regional Public Prosecutor declined to file charges, stating "that in assessing what constitutes an offence under both section 140 and section 266 b
iscussed belowof the Danish Criminal Code, the right to freedom of expression must be taken into consideration"; he found that no criminal offence had taken place in this case.
Section 140 was repealed in 2017.
However, the Director of Public Prosecutions said, "there is, therefore, no free and unrestricted right to express opinions about religious subjects. It is thus not a correct description of existing law when the article in ''Jyllands-Posten'' states that it is incompatible with the right to freedom of expression to demand special consideration for religious feelings and that one has to be ready to put up with 'scorn, mockery and ridicule'."
Utterances intended for public dissemination deemed hateful based on 'race, colour, national or ethnic origin, belief or sexual orientation' can be penalised under section 266 b of the criminal code. Some people have been convicted under this provision, mostly for speech directed at Muslims.
''Jyllands-Posten''
While ''Jyllands-Posten'' has published satirical cartoons depicting Christian figures,
it rejected unsolicited cartoons in 2003 which depicted Jesus on the grounds that they were offensive,
opening it to accusations of a double standard.
In February 2006, ''Jyllands-Posten'' refused to publish
Holocaust cartoons, which included cartoons that mocked or denied the Holocaust, offered by an Iranian newspaper which had held a contest. Six of the less controversial images were later published by ''
Dagbladet Information
''Information'' (), full name: ''Dagbladet Information'' (), is a Danish newspaper published Monday through Saturday.
History and profile
''Dagbladet Information'' was established and published by the Danish resistance movement in 1943 during ...
'', after the editors consulted the main rabbi in Copenhagen, and three cartoons were later reprinted in ''Jyllands-Posten''. After the competition had finished, ''Jyllands-Posten'' also reprinted the winning and runner-up cartoons.
''Jyllands-Posten'' has been described as conservative and it was supportive of the then-ruling party
Venstre. It frequently reported on the activities of imams it considered radical, including Raed Hlayhel and Ahmed Akkari.
Peter Hervik has argued that anti-Islamic positions and discourse dominated ''Jyllands-Posten's'' editorial leadership from at least 2001 until the cartoon crisis.
Islamic tradition
Aniconism
![Mohammed kaaba 1315](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/Mohammed_kaaba_1315.jpg)
The
Qur'an
The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , sing. ...
condemns idolatry, and various ''
hadith
Ḥadīth ( or ; ar, حديث, , , , , , , literally "talk" or "discourse") or Athar ( ar, أثر, , literally "remnant"/"effect") refers to what the majority of Muslims believe to be a record of the words, actions, and the silent approval ...
s'' also forbid depictions of living beings. This has led major
Islamic scholars
In Islam, the ''ulama'' (; ar, علماء ', singular ', "scholar", literally "the learned ones", also spelled ''ulema''; feminine: ''alimah'' ingularand ''aalimath'' lural are the guardians, transmitters, and interpreters of religious ...
and
legal schools to prohibit figurative representation; this is known as
aniconism. However, since Islam has many centres of religious authority, opinion and tradition about this is not uniform. For mainstream Islamic scholars, all pictorial representations of
Prophets
In religion, a prophet or prophetess is an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings from the s ...
are prohibited.
In popular practice today there is no general injunction against pictorial representation of people outside of religious contexts. Generally, images of Muhammad have been prohibited throughout history. In practice, images of Muhammad have been made on many occasions, generally in a restricted and socially regulated way; for example, they are often stylised or do not show Muhammad's face. Within Muslim communities, views about pictorial representations have varied:
Shi'a Islam
Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, most n ...
has been generally tolerant of pictorial representations of human figures while
Sunni Islam
Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word '' Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagre ...
generally forbids any pictorial representation of living beings, albeit with some variation in practice outside a religious context. Some contemporary interpretations of Islam, such as those followed by adherents of
Wahhabism
Wahhabism ( ar, ٱلْوَهَّابِيَةُ, translit=al-Wahhābiyyah) is a Sunni Islamic revivalist and fundamentalist movement associated with the reformist doctrines of the 18th-century Arabian Islamic scholar, theologian, preacher, an ...
, are
iconoclastic
Iconoclasm (from Ancient Greek, Greek: grc, wikt:εἰκών, εἰκών, lit=figure, icon, translit=eikṓn, label=none + grc, wikt:κλάω, κλάω, lit=to break, translit=kláō, label=none)From grc, wikt:εἰκών, εἰκών + wi ...
. The movement strongly upholds ''
Tawhid
Tawhid ( ar, , ', meaning "unification of God in Islam ( Allāh)"; also romanized as ''Tawheed'', ''Tawhid'', ''Tauheed'' or ''Tevhid'') is the indivisible oneness concept of monotheism in Islam. Tawhid is the religion's central and single ...
'' (monotheism), advocate direct return to Scriptures in rejection of ''
Taqlid
''Taqlid'' (Arabic تَقْليد ''taqlīd'') is an Islamic term denoting the conformity of one person to the teaching of another. The person who performs ''taqlid'' is termed ''muqallid''. The definite meaning of the term varies depending on co ...
'' and view various practices associated with grave veneration as idolatry. Based on these principles, its followers designated themselves as ''
Muwahhidun'' (Unitarians) and destroyed tombs and shrines of ''
Awliyaa
A wali (''wali'' ar, وَلِيّ, '; plural , '), the Arabic word which has been variously translated "master", "authority", "custodian", "protector", is most commonly used by Muslims to indicate an Islamic saint, otherwise referred to by the ...
'' (saints) in regions under their rule. These ideas have influenced contemporary movements such as the
Taliban
The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state (polity), state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalist, m ...
, known for its aniconist views that condemn all forms of pictorial representations and advocate the destruction of idols; most notably the
2001 Destruction of Bamiyan statues.
Insulting Muhammad
In Muslim societies, insulting Muhammad is considered one of the gravest of all crimes. According to Ana Belen Soage of the
University of Granada
The University of Granada ( es, Universidad de Granada, UGR) is a public university located in the city of Granada, Spain, and founded in 1531 by Emperor Charles V. With more than 60,000 students, it is the fourth largest university in Spain. Apar ...
, "The Islamic sharî'a has traditionally considered blasphemy punishable by death, although modern Muslim thinkers such as
Mohammad Hashim Kamali
Mohammad Hashim Kamali (Pashto/Dari: ; born 7 February 1944) is an Afghan Islamic scholar and former professor of law at the International Islamic University of Malaysia. He taught Islamic law and jurisprudence between 1985 and 2004. One author ...
maintain that, given that the Quran does not prescribe a punishment, determining a penalty is left to the judicial authorities of the day."
In the Quran itself, "God often instructs Muhammad to be patient to those who insult him and, according to historical records, no action was taken against them during his years in Mecca."
Many Muslims said their anti-cartoon stance is against insulting pictures and not so much as against pictures in general. According to the BBC, "It is the satirical intent of the cartoonists and the association of the Prophet with terrorism, that is so offensive to the vast majority of Muslims." This link played into a widespread perception among Muslims across the world that many in the West are hostile towards Islam and Muslims.
Political issues
The cartoon controversy became one of the highest profile world events in 2006. It attracted a great deal of coverage and commentary, mostly focusing on the situation of Muslims living in the West, the relationship between the Western world and Islamic world, and issues surrounding freedom of speech, secularism, and self-censorship.
Situation of Muslim minority in Denmark
Approximately 350,000 non-Western immigrants lived in Denmark in 2006, representing about 7% of the country's population. According to figures reported by the BBC, about 270,000 of these were Muslim (ca. 5% of the population).
In the 1970s Muslims arrived from Turkey, Pakistan, Morocco and Yugoslavia to work. In the 1980s and 90s most Muslim arrivals were refugees and asylum seekers from Iran, Iraq, Somalia and Bosnia.
Muslims are the second-largest religious group in Denmark behind
Lutheran
Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...
s.
Peter Hervik said that the cartoon controversy should be seen in the context of an increasingly politicised media environment in Denmark since the 1990s, increasingly negative coverage of Islam and the Muslim minority in Denmark, anti-Muslim rhetoric from the governing political parties, and government policies such as restrictions on immigration and the abolishment of the Board for Ethnic Equality in 2002.
Hervik said these themes are often ignored in international coverage of the issue and that they render conclusions that ''Jyllands-Posten'' and the Danish government were innocent victims in a dispute over freedom of speech inaccurate.
Against this background, Danish Muslims were particularly offended by the cartoons because they reinforced the idea that Danes stigmatize all Muslims as terrorists and do not respect their religious beliefs.
Heiko Henkel of British academic journal ''
Radical Philosophy
''Radical Philosophy'' is a triannual peer-reviewed academic journal of critical theory and philosophy. It was established in 1972 with the purpose of providing a forum for the theoretical work which was emerging in the wake of the radical movement ...
'' wrote:
Kiku Day, writing in ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' said, "We were a liberal and tolerant people until the 1990s, when we suddenly awoke to find that for the first time in our history we had a significant minority group living among us. Confronted with the terrifying novelty of being a multicultural country, Denmark took a step not merely to the right but to the far right." Professor Anders Linde-Laursen wrote that while the controversy "should be understood as an expression of a growing Islamophobic tendency in Danish society," this is just the latest manifestation of a long-standing and particularly deep conflict between traditionalists and agents of modernity in Denmark, and should not be seen as a major departure for Danish society.
Danish Muslim politician Naser Khader said, "Muslims are no more discriminated against in Denmark than they are elsewhere in Europe ... Generally, Danes give you a fair shake. They accept Muslims if you declare that you are loyal to this society, to democracy. If you say that you are one of them, they will accept you. If you have reservations, they will worry."
His concern has centred on the power of "Islamism" or fundamentalist political Islam in Denmark's Muslim community, which he has tried to fight, especially in the wake of the controversy, by forming an association of democratic, moderate Muslims.
Relationship between the West and Muslims
The incident occurred at a time of unusually strained relations between parts of the Muslim world and the West. This was a result of several things combined, decades of Muslim immigration to Europe, recent political struggles, violent incidents such as September 11 and a string of Islamist terrorist attacks and Western interventions in Muslim countries. The cartoons were, however, also used as a tool by different political interests in a wide variety of local and international situations, Muslim and otherwise. Some debate surrounded the relationship between Islamic minorities and their broader societies, and the legal and moral limits that the press should observe when commenting on that minority or any religious minority group.
= Cartoons as a political tool in the West
=
Some commentators see the publications of the cartoons as part of a deliberate effort to show Muslims and Islam in a bad light, thus influencing public opinion in the West in aid of various political projects. Journalist Andrew Mueller wrote, "I am concerned that the ridiculous, disproportionate reaction to some unfunny sketches in an obscure Scandinavian newspaper may confirm that ... Islam and the West are fundamentally irreconcilable". Different groups used the cartoon for different political purposes; Heiko Henkel wrote:
Notably, though, political cartoons do not just target Islam. Any subject can be treated, and the political cartoon culture found in many media often give a poignant comment for current events—comparable to a court jester, pointing out uncomfortable or un-tellable truths in a comic fashion
= Use by Islamists and Middle-Eastern governments
=
Some commentators believed that the controversy was used by Islamists competing for influence both in Europe and the Islamic world. Jytte Klausen wrote that the Muslim reaction to the cartoons was not a spontaneous, emotional reaction arising out of the clash of Western and Islamic civilisations. "Rather it was orchestrated, first by those with vested interests in elections in Denmark and Egypt, and later by Islamic extremists seeking to destabilise governments in Pakistan, Lebanon, Libya, and Nigeria." Other regimes in the Middle East have been accused of taking advantage of the controversy and adding to it to demonstrate their Islamic credentials, distracting from their domestic situations by setting up an external enemy, and according to ''The Wall Street Journal'', "
sing
Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...
the cartoons ... as a way of showing that the expansion of freedom and democracy in their countries would lead inevitably to the denigration of Islam."
Among others, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah
Ali Khamenei
Sayyid Ali Hosseini Khamenei ( fa, سید علی حسینی خامنهای, ; born 19 April 1939) is a Twelver Shia ''marja and the second and current Supreme Leader of Iran, in office since 1989. He was previously the third president o ...
blamed a
Zionist conspiracy for the row over the cartoons. Palestinian Christian diplomat
Afif Safieh, then the
Palestine Liberation Organization
The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ar, منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية, ') is a Palestinian nationalism, Palestinian nationalist political and militant organization founded in 1964 with the initial purpose of establ ...
's envoy to Washington, alleged the
Likud
Likud ( he, הַלִּיכּוּד, HaLikud, The Consolidation), officially known as Likud – National Liberal Movement, is a major centre-right to right-wing political party in Israel. It was founded in 1973 by Menachem Begin and Ariel Sharon ...
party concocted the distribution of Muhammad caricatures worldwide in a bid to create a clash between the West and the Muslim world.
= Racism and ignorance
=
One controversy that arose around the cartoons was the question of whether they were racist.
The
United Nations Commission on Human Rights
The United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) was a functional commission within the overall framework of the United Nations from 1946 until it was replaced by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2006. It was a subsidiary body of t ...
(UNCHR)
Special Rapporteur "on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance",
Doudou Diène
Doudou Diène (born 1941) is a Senegalese jurist. He was United Nations Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance from 2002–2008.
Education
Diène holds a law degree fro ...
, saw xenophobia and racism in Europe as the root of the controversy, and partly criticised the government of Denmark for inaction after the publication of the cartoons.
However, Aurel Sari has since said that the special rapporteur's interpretation was wrong and that "neither the decision to commission images depicting the Prophet in defiance of Islamic tradition, nor the actual content of the individual cartoons can be regarded as racist within the meaning of the relevant international human rights instruments" although "some of the more controversial pictures may nevertheless be judged 'gratuitously offensive' to the religious beliefs of Muslims in accordance with the applicable case-law of the European Court of Human Rights." This means that the Danish authorities probably could have prohibited the drawings' dissemination if they had chosen to.
Randall Hansen
Randall Hansen is a political scientist and historian at the University of Toronto, where he has held a Canada Research Chair in Political science, Political Science since 2005. He is the Director of the Centre for European, Russian, and Eurasian ...
said that the cartoons were clearly anti-Islamic, but that this should not be confused with racism because a religion is a system of ideas not an inherent identity.
Tariq Modood
Tariq Modood, (born 1952) is a British Pakistani Professor of Sociology, Politics, and Public Policy at the University of Bristol (1997– ). Modood is the founding director of the Centre for the Study of Ethnicity and Citizenship and one of th ...
said that the cartoons were essentially racist because Muslims are in practice treated as a group based on their religion, and that the cartoons were intended to represent all of Islam and all Muslims in a negative way, not just Muhammad.
Erik Bleich said that while the cartoons did essentialise Islam in a potentially racist way, they ranged from offensive to pro-Muslim so labelling them as a group was problematic.
''
The Economist
''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Econo ...
'' said Muslims were not targeted in a discriminatory way, since unflattering cartoons about other religions or their leaders are frequently printed. For
Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is ...
, the cartoons were inspired by a spirit of "ordinary racism under cover of freedom of expression" and that they must be seen in the context of Jyllands-Posten agenda of incitement against immigrants in Denmark.
On 26 February 2006, the cartoonist
Kurt Westergaard
Kurt Westergaard (born Kurt Vestergaard; 13 July 1935 – 14 July 2021) was a Danish cartoonist. In 2005 he drew a cartoon of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, wearing a bomb in his turban as a part of the ''Jyllands-Posten'' Muhammad cartoons, w ...
who drew the "bomb in turban" cartoonthe most controversial of the 12said:
Some Muslims saw the cartoons as a sign of lack of education about Islam in Denmark and in the West. Egyptian preacher and television star
Amr Khaled
Amr Mohamed Helmi Khaled ( ar, عمرو محمد حلمي خالد; born: 5 September 1967) is an Egyptian Muslim activist and television preacher. ''The New York Times Magazine'', in reference to Khaled's popularity in English-speaking coun ...
urged his followers to take action to remedy supposed Western ignorance, saying, "It is our duty to the prophet of God to make his message known ... Do not say that this is the task of the ''ulema'' (religious scholars)it is the task of all of us."
Ana Soage said, "the targeting of a religious symbol like Muhammad, the only prophet that Muslims do not share with Jews and Christians, was perceived as the last in a long list of humiliations and assaults: it is probably not a coincidence that the more violent demonstrations were held in countries like Syria, Iran and Libya, whose relations with the West are tense."
Yusuf al-Qaradawi
Yusuf al-Qaradawi ( ar, يوسف القرضاوي, translit=Yūsuf al-Qaraḍāwī; or ''Yusuf al-Qardawi''; 9 September 1926 – 26 September 2022) was an Egyptian Islamic scholar based in Doha, Qatar, and chairman of the International Union of ...
, a prominent Islamic theologian, called for a day of anger from Muslims in response to the cartoons. He supported calls for a UN resolution that "categorically prohibits affronts to prophetsto the prophets of the Lord and His messengers, to His holy books, and to the religious holy places". He also castigated governments around the world for inaction on the issue, saying, "Your silence over such crimes, which offend the Prophet of Islam and insult his great nation, is what begets violence, generates terrorism, and makes the terrorists say: Our governments are doing nothing, and we must avenge our Prophet ourselves. This is what creates terrorism and begets violence."
= Double standards
=
Ehsan Ahrari of ''
Asia Times
''Asia Times'' (), formerly known as ''Asia Times Online'', is a Hong Kong-based English language news media publishing group, covering politics, economics, business, and culture from an Asian perspective. ''Asia Times'' publishes in English and ...
'' accused some European countries of double standards in adopting
laws that outlaw Holocaust denial but still defended the concept of freedom of speech in this case. Other scholars also criticized the practice as a double standard. Anti-holocaust or genocide denial laws were in place in Austria, Germany, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Israel, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, and Romania in 2005. However, Denmark has no such laws and there wasand still isno EU-wide law against holocaust denial. Randall Hansen said that laws against holocaust denial were not directly comparable with restrictions on social satire, so could not be considered a double standard unless one believed in an absolute right to freedom of speech, and that those who do would doubtless oppose holocaust denial laws.
Columnist
Charles Krauthammer
Charles Krauthammer (; March 13, 1950 – June 21, 2018) was an American political columnist. A moderate liberal who turned independent conservative as a political pundit, Krauthammer won the Pulitzer Prize for his columns in ''The Washingt ...
wrote that there was a double standard in many protesters' demands for religious sensitivity in this case, but not in others. He asked, "Have any of these 'moderates' ever protested the grotesque caricatures of Christians and, most especially, Jews that are broadcast throughout the Middle East on a daily basis?"
= Relationship between the liberal West and Islam
=
Francis Fukuyama
Francis Yoshihiro Fukuyama (; born October 27, 1952) is an American political scientist, political economist, international relations scholar and writer.
Fukuyama is known for his book ''The End of History and the Last Man'' (1992), which argue ...
wrote in the online magazine ''
Slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...
'' that "while beginning with a commendable European desire to assert basic liberal values," the controversy was an alarming sign of the degree of cultural conflict between Muslim immigrant communities in Europe and their broader populations, and advocated a measured and prudent response to the situation. Helle Rytkonen wrote in ''Danish Foreign Policy Yearbook 2007'' that most of the debate around the cartoon controversy was over-simplified as a simple matter of free speech against religion. She said that the actual dispute was more nuanced, focusing on the tone of the debate and broader context of Western-Islamic relations.
Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Eric Hitchens (13 April 1949 – 15 December 2011) was a British-American author and journalist who wrote or edited over 30 books (including five essay collections) on culture, politics, and literature. Born and educated in England, ...
wrote in ''Slate'' that official reaction in the Westparticularly the United Stateswas too lenient toward the protesters and Muslim community in Denmark, and insufficiently supportive of Denmark and the right to free speech:
Nobody in authority can be found to state the obvious and the necessary—that we stand with the Danes against this defamation and blackmail and sabotage. Instead, all compassion and concern is apparently to be expended upon those who lit the powder trail, and who yell and scream for joy as the embassies of democracies are put to the torch in the capital cities of miserable, fly-blown dictatorships. Let's be sure we haven't hurt the vandals' ''feelings''.
William Kristol
William Kristol (; born December 23, 1952) is an American neoconservative writer. A frequent commentator on several networks including CNN, he was the founder and editor-at-large of the political magazine ''The Weekly Standard''. Kristol is now ...
also wrote that the response of Western leaders, with the exception of the Danish Prime Minister, was too weak and that the issue was used as an excuse by "those who are threatened by our effort to help liberalize and civilize the Middle East" to fight back against the "assault" on radical Islamists and Middle Eastern dictatorships.
Flemming Rose said he did not expect a violent reaction, and talked about what the incident implies about the relationship between the West and the Muslim world:
Freedom of speech, political correctness and self-censorship
One of the principal lines of controversy surrounding the cartoons concerned the limits of free speech, how much it should be legally or ethically constrained and whether the cartoons were an appropriate expression for a newspaper to print. The cartoons were first printed in response to the perception of some journalists at the newspaper that self-censorship was becoming a problem; the ensuing reaction did nothing to dispel that idea. Rose said:
Rose also highlighted what he believed to be a difference between political correctness and self-censorshipwhich he considered more dangerous. He said:
Christopher Hitchens wrote that it is important to affirm "the right to criticize not merely Islam but religion in general." He criticised media outlets which did not print the cartoons while covering the story.
Ralf Dahrendorf
Ralf Gustav Dahrendorf, Baron Dahrendorf, (1 May 1929 – 17 June 2009) was a German-British sociologist, philosopher, political scientist and liberal politician. A class conflict theorist, Dahrendorf was a leading expert on explaining and a ...
wrote that the violent reaction to the cartoons constituted a sort of
counter-enlightenment
The Counter-Enlightenment refers to a loose collection of intellectual stances that arose during the European Enlightenment in opposition to its mainstream attitudes and ideals. The Counter-Enlightenment is generally seen to have continued from t ...
which must be defended against.
Sonia Mikich wrote in ''
Die Tageszeitung
''Die Tageszeitung'' (, “The Daily Newspaper”), is counted as being one of modern Germany's most important newspapers and amongst the top seven. taz is stylized as ''die tageszeitung'' and commonly referred to as ''taz'', is a cooperative-own ...
'', "I hereby refuse to feel badly for the chronically insulted. I refuse to argue politely why freedom of expression, reason and humour should be respected". She said that those things are part of a healthy society and that deeply held feelings or beliefs should not be exempt from commentary, and that those offended had the option of ignoring them.
Ashwani K. Peetush of
Wilfrid Laurier University
Wilfrid Laurier University (commonly referred to as WLU or simply Laurier) is a public university in Ontario, Canada, with campuses in Waterloo, Brantford and Milton. The newer Brantford and Milton campuses are not considered satellite campuses ...
wrote that in a liberal democracy freedom of speech is not absolute, and that reasonable limits are put on it such as libel, defamation and hate speech laws in almost every society to protect individuals from "devastating and direct harm." He said that it is reasonable to consider two of the cartoons as hate speech, which directly undermine a group of people (Muslims) by forming part of an established discourse linking all Muslims with terrorism and barbarity:
he cartoonscreate a social environment of conflict and intimidation for a community that already feels that its way of life is threatened. I do not see how such tactics incorporate people into the wider public and democratic sphere, as Rose argues. They have the opposite effect: the marginalised feel further marginalised and powerless.
In France, the satirical magazine ''
Charlie Hebdo
''Charlie Hebdo'' (; meaning ''Charlie Weekly'') is a French satirical weekly magazine, featuring cartoons, reports, polemics, and jokes. Stridently non-conformist in tone, the publication has been described as Anti-racism, anti-racist, sceptica ...
'' was taken to court for publishing the cartoons; it was acquitted of charges that it incited hatred.
In Canada a human rights commission investigated ''
The Western Standard'', a magazine which published the cartoons, but found insufficient grounds to proceed with a human rights tribunal (which does not imply criminal charges, but is a quasi-judicial, mandatory process) against the publication. These government investigations of journalists catalysed debate about the role of government in censoring or prosecuting expressions they deemed potentially hateful.
Tim Cavanaugh
Tim Cavanaugh is a journalist and screenwriter based in Alexandria, Virginia. He is a news editor for ''The Washington Examiner''. Prior to that, he was News Editor for '' National Review Online'', Executive Editor for ''The Daily Caller'', Managi ...
wrote that the incident revealed the danger of hate speech laws:
The issue will almost certainly lead to a revisiting of the lamentable laws against 'hate speech' in Europe, and with any luck to a debate on whether these laws are more likely to destroy public harmony than encourage it.
Comparable incidents
The following incidents are often compared to the cartoon controversy:
*
''The Satanic Verses'' controversy (novel, 1988, global)
* ''
The Calcutta Quran Petition'' (a controversy about a petition to ban the Quran, 1985, India)
* ''
Mohammad, Messenger of God
''The Message'' ( ar, الرسالة, italic=yes, ''Ar-Risālah'', ''The Message''; originally known as ''Mohammad, Messenger of God'') is a 1976 Islamic epic drama film directed and produced by Moustapha Akkad, chronicling the life and times ...
'' (film, 1977, United States, Libya, UK and Lebanon)
* ''
Capitalist Piglet'' (cartoon, published in response to the ''Jyllands-Posten'' incident, generating national attention, 2006, Canada)
* ''
Gregorius Nekschot'' (cartoons, 2008, Netherlands)
* ''
Innocence of Muslims
''Innocence of Muslims'' is an anti-Islamic short film that was written and produced by Nakoula Basseley Nakoula. Two versions of the 14-minute video were uploaded to YouTube in July 2012, under the titles "The Real Life of Muhammad" and "Muham ...
'' (film, 2012, United States)
* ''
Charlie Hebdo
''Charlie Hebdo'' (; meaning ''Charlie Weekly'') is a French satirical weekly magazine, featuring cartoons, reports, polemics, and jokes. Stridently non-conformist in tone, the publication has been described as Anti-racism, anti-racist, sceptica ...
'' (cartoon controversies, 2011 and 2012;
terror attack
Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...
, 2015)
* ''
Fitna'', 2008 Dutch film about Islam, which led to
worldwide Muslim protests and a
hate speech trial
* ''
Behzti
''Behzti'' ( Punjabi ਬੇਇੱਜ਼ਤੀ, ''Dishonour'') is a play written by the British Sikh playwright Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti. The play sparked controversy in the United Kingdom in December 2004. A controversial scene set in a Gurdwara ( ...
'', (2004 play, United Kingdom)
* ''
Submission
Deference (also called submission or passivity) is the condition of submitting to the espoused, legitimate influence of one's superior or superiors. Deference implies a yielding or submitting to the judgment of a recognized superior, out of re ...
'' (film, 2004, the Netherlands)
*
2005 Cronulla riots
*
Lars Vilks Muhammad drawings controversy
The Lars Vilks Muhammad drawings controversy began in July 2007 with a series of drawings by Swedish artist Lars Vilks that depicted the Islamic prophet Muhammad as a roundabout dog (a form of street installation in Sweden). Several art galleries ...
*
2015 Copenhagen shootings
*
Murder of Samuel Paty
The murder of Samuel Paty (), a French Secondary education in France#Collège, secondary school teacher, took place on 16 October 2020 in Éragny-sur-Oise, a suburb of Paris. Paty was killed and Decapitation, beheaded by an Islamic terrorism, Is ...
*
South Park Muhammad controversy
*
Everybody Draw Muhammad Day
See also
*
Blasphemy Day
Blasphemy Day, also known as International Blasphemy Day or International Blasphemy Rights Day, educates individuals and groups about blasphemy laws and defends freedom of expression, especially the open criticism of religion which is criminalize ...
is celebrated on 30 September to coincide with the anniversary of the publication of the cartoons
*
Dove World Outreach Center Quran-burning controversy
In July 2010, Terry Jones, the pastor of the Christian Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, U.S., announced he would burn 200 Qurans on the 2010 anniversary of the September 11 attacks. He gained media coverage, resulting in i ...
*
Everybody Draw Mohammed Day
Everybody Draw Mohammed Day (or Draw Mohammed Day) was a 2010 event in support of artists threatened with violence for drawing representations of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It stemmed from a protest against censorship of the American telev ...
* ''
The First Temptation of Christ
''The First Temptation of Christ'' ( pt, A Primeira Tentação de Cristo) is a 2019 Brazilian Satire (film and television), satirical comedy film produced by the comedy troupe Porta dos Fundos. It was released on Netflix on 3 December 2019.
Plo ...
''
* ''
The Messenger of God'', a 2015 film the creation of which was inspired by the cartoons
*
Murder of Samuel Paty
The murder of Samuel Paty (), a French Secondary education in France#Collège, secondary school teacher, took place on 16 October 2020 in Éragny-sur-Oise, a suburb of Paris. Paty was killed and Decapitation, beheaded by an Islamic terrorism, Is ...
*
Depictions of Muhammad
The permissibility of depictions of Muhammad in Islam has been a contentious issue. Oral and written descriptions of Muhammad are readily accepted by all traditions of Islam, but there is disagreement about visual depictions. The Quran does not ...
Notes
References
Inline citations
General references
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External links
Video
Protesters Burn European Embassies, Consulates, Churches in Damascus and Beirut 4–5 February 2006 (5 mins)BBC HARDtalk: Ahmad Abu Laban and Fleming Rose, 8 February 2006Bloody CartoonsA documentary by Carsten Kjær from October 2007 on the cartoon affair, including many interviews with the major protagonists. (46 mins)
Images
The 12 cartoons in full size at Newspaper Index (Internet Archive)*
ttp://monkeydyne.com/photos/?d=akkari_dossier Copy of Akkari-Laban dossier
{{Depictions of Muhammad
Events relating to freedom of expression
Boycotts of countries
Satirical comics
Censorship in Islam
Editorial cartooning
Works about censorship
Caricature
Cartoon controversies
Islam-related controversies
Religious parodies and satires
2005 works
2006 in Denmark
2007 in Denmark
2008 in Denmark
Obscenity controversies in art
Counter-jihad